Nearly 19.5 mln people in Sudan facing acute food insecurity: UN

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 19.5 million people in Sudan are facing crisis levels of acute food insecurity, a UN spokesperson said Friday, citing the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

While 14 areas are at risk of famine across Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, conditions are expected to deteriorate further during the lean season between June and September, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, told a daily briefing.

Meanwhile, humanitarian assistance remains critically inadequate compared with the scale of needs, he said.

Between February and May, humanitarian partners aimed to reach 4.8 million people per month, but only an estimated 3.13 million people received assistance in February, Haq said.

FAO, WFP, and UNICEF have called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, and urged the international community to urgently scale up funding for food, emergency food production, nutrition, health, and water and sanitation services, as well as support for actions to rebuild livelihoods, the spokesperson added.